Robin Murphy N.D.

World famous homeopath, author and teacher, Robin Murphy, is interviewed by Elaine Lewis.

blue=Elaine Lewis,Black = Robin Murphy

People are always saying nice things to me, like, “Your words seem to make things so much clearer,” or, “As always, you are the best teacher.” If any of that is true, it can only be because of MY teacher, Dr. Robin Murphy!

Robin Murphy’s Course: Open to Everyone!

The great thing about Robin Murphy, which I applaud him for, is the amazing thing he’s done in making his entire course available to ordinary people–no questions asked! Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Well, isn’t everyone’s course available to ordinary people?” No! Except for acute prescribing, most teachers ask that you have degrees or certificates in certain things, that you enroll in their course, their school, that you plunk down hundreds or thousands of dollars up front, and if you don’t like it or can’t finish the course, you might get some of your money back but certainly not all of it, and if all you wanted of a certain famous homeopath’s course was his materia medica lectures, sorry, but, you can’t have them– unless you’re enrolled in the school! And if you’re not a medical professional, no one will teach you any advanced prescribing ever–EXCEPT ROBIN MURPHY! If someone in your family has cancer, and all you want from Murphy’s course is his seminar on breast cancer, you can buy it without obligating yourself in any way! If someone in your family is mentally ill and all you want of Murphy’s course is his seminar on psychological problems, you can buy it! No one asks if you’re a medical professional or how many years of college you’ve had or how many anatomy and physiology courses you’ve taken…and it’s because of this “open-door policy” that I am a homeopath today! So, Robin, why you? Why are you the exception?

Well, I don’t know…that’s a pretty big question, but, I was a lay homeopath first when I went to naturopathic school and I always felt that homeopathy, if it’s so safe, so natural, it should be available to everybody! So when I practiced, for years, I always made available first aid kits, books and information to all my patients, so… my patients, instead of having just a “doctor-patient” relationship with me were having more of a “teacher-student” relationship. So, you give a first aid kit to people and then they start using it on their kids, their pets and their friends and then these people end up wanting to study homeopathy; so, I encouraged it; and, to this day, I still encourage that homeopathy should be available, like the air and the water, to everybody who wants to take the time to study and learn it.

You know, the name of our journal is “Homeopathy for Everyone”, so, I think we share the same philosophy! What I’ve seen is that practitioners will make their acute case lectures available to the public but not their chronic case lectures.

But it’s kind of strange to withhold your lectures on subjects when all people have to do is buy the books! I mean, there’s books out on all these subjects–cancer or whatever! So would you rather that people read and study on their own with no supervision? And let’s face it, there are people out there who are desperate! They’re looking for alternatives to standard medicine, there’s no homeopath in their city or state, they’re on their own…are we just supposed to forget these people?

I guess so… (And by the way, I should probably mention that Robin Murphy’s course is available on his website: www.LotusHealthInstitute.com. Start with the acute and emergency prescribing seminars and work your way up to chronic prescribing. There are 32+ seminars on CD for you to buy, plus Robin’s Repertory, Materia Medica and other books as well.)

I don’t see the world that way, I don’t see some “intellectual class” as being the only ones deserving of knowing homeopathy. Sure, homeopathy does attract these super intellectuals; but, homeopathy is also a medicine from the heart and feelings, a mother’s intuition…I’ll say to a mother, “What remedy do YOU think it is?”

I do the same thing, really! I’m always relieved when my client knows something about homeopathy because I know the outcome of the case is going to be much better than if he or she knows nothing! But let me ask you about acute prescribing because I have noticed that people have a very hard time with acute cases because they’re not really sure at all what they’re supposed to pay attention to. And some people, dare I say it, are looking for the constitutional remedy regardless of what’s wrong!

Constitutional vs. Practical Homeopathy

Yes, people are emphasizing constitutional homeopathy and I am the exact opposite. I emphasize clinical homeopathy which includes emergency prescribing, first aid, and acute prescribing…and that’s the way to spread homeopathy at the grass roots level–Arnica, Arsenicum, Allium cepa are really our calling cards, our way to spread the word.

Up to now, the emphasis has always been on the Kentian approach–one remedy to treat the whole person covering their whole life, it becomes very complex and very intellectual; so, I emphasize that every homeopath should have thorough training in emergency prescribing first and then acute prescribing and treating infections second, and then go on to epidemics and miasms and constitutional and chronic disease…it’s all homeopathy, but, as you learn any science, you learn at the front door. The front door is emergency homeopathy and how to use the first aid kit!

And I know there are homeopaths, some of my friends, who don’t treat acutes, they don’t treat emergencies; and then their child has a chronic ear infection; well, if you had given Chamomilla in the beginning, they wouldn’t have chronic ear infections now! We shouldn’t have prejudices, we should treat whatever comes through our door. “Oh, this patient has cancer, he might die, I can’t treat him!” Our goals should be to help people where ever they’re at. Emergency, infection, epidemic, chronic disease, psychological problems…where ever they’re at we should use our remedies to help. One of the prejudices is that we have to cure everything. We’re not cure-chasers, we’re trying to be healers and healing includes palliation, relieving the pain and suffering, helping people when they’re dying to leave more consciously and so on; so, homeopathy, to me, needs to be more practical and more clinical.

So, I consider myself a clinical homeopath, not a constitutional homeopath. Going deep into the psychology isn’t the right thing to do all the time. Someone comes into my office with a knee problem. I have to fix the knee! It’s an energy leak, they can’t go to work, now they’re depressed, they can’t sleep, because of the knee problem. So, I’m supposed to give them a constitutional remedy that applies to none of that? That’s prejudicial homeopathy–that you have to go deep in the psychology in every case.

I have a knee problem right now so I’m very sympathetic to that!

Every case should tell us what’s the right thing to do–where the pain and the suffering is. If the pain and suffering’s in the big toe and they have gangrene, our whole homeopathic treatment should be aimed at that big toe; and, of course, we’re going to take down the modalities, the sensations and any mentals that relate to the gangrene, but the clinical homeopath has to acknowledge that this gangrene is life threatening and they’re coming to us for that, not to fulfill some philosophy of homeopathy we might have. If the patient is in a psychological state, you have to give a psychological remedy. If they’re suffering from chronic fatigue, you have to give them a chronic fatigue remedy.

So, Clinical Homeopathy is really the most classical of all the homeopathic approaches because it’s using all the techniques and procedures and methodologies that have been used in the past, that have proven themselves effective. The teaching in a lot of the new schools of homeopathy is but one teacher’s idea about how to solve these cases; but I stand with all the homeopaths in history and that’s clinical homeopathy–whether it’s Burnett or Clarke or Boericke or Kent or Hahnemann or Hering…it doesn’t matter…how did they practice? How did they prescribe? And then we have a wealth of prescribing techniques, we don’t belong to one school.

I gave lectured for years about the different ways of prescribing homeopathic remedies; but, people today still believe there’s only one way. Emergency prescribing is different from Acute; treating miasms is different, you can’t just have one approach, you have to have mulitple approaches, there’s, like, 15 different ways: tautopathic, isopathic…the first remedy ever given in homeopathy by Hahnemann was not homeopathic. Peruvian bark was an antidote to Peruvian bark poisoning! It was tautopathic. So Tautopathy is a big branch in homeopathy that I don’t see being taught anywhere: Arsenic poisoning? You give them Arsenicum, and it’s worked for two hundred years. If I know someone’s been poisoned by a drug, I give the drug in potency! I just came back from Haiti seeing 50 to 100 patients a day and I can tell you, constitutional homeopathy’s worthless under such conditions!

Yes, I can totally see that; and by the way, just as an FYI, when we say “in potency” or “I gave the drug in potency”, we mean “as a homeopathic remedy”, or “we made it into a homeopathic remedy.”

Right, I forget sometimes that our readers are at all different levels. So, I have five minutes with each patient! (In Haiti.) And I’m told, “Well, that’s not good homeopathy!” No, “not good homeopathy” is not helping these people! And one of the biggest things that upsets me is that a lot of these new teachers are, for all intents and purposes, starting over! We won’t know for a hundred years how truly effective their methods are.

Robin Goes to Haiti

So Robin, you went to Haiti? After the earthquake?

Yes, I went there with Homeopaths Without Borders.

Wow, you are really to be commended for that! It must have been very unnerving, though!

Oh, it was fine. The weather was very hot!

You didn’t feel overwhelmed with people’s suffering and neediness?

I get more concerned with, How can I help?

What did you treat?

A lot of funguses, infection, diabetes…most of them were on allopathic drugs, and now they can’t afford them! And we were in a hospital parking lot next to a pharmacy and all these people couldn’t afford to get their drugs–even though they were discounted by 80%. So, homeopathy’s right there!

But the pressure seems overwhelming.

You Don’t Have to Be Perfect!

We have this idea that we have to have the perfect patient and the perfect method of saving him. If we’re on the beach and people are drowning and we’re looking around for just the right thing to save the person with, and the exact right way to do it, that’s the wrong attitude, a lot of people are going to drown while you’re second-guessing everything you’re planning to do. Throw in whatever you have–sticks, ropes…. Throw yourself in! There’s no one way. Some of us are more concerned with doing things “right” than with helping people! I feel that people talk themselves out of helping patients because the situation isn’t ideal and the patient isn’t perfect. I feel that not to TRY to help is the only mistake you can make.

What kind of fungal infections were you seeing?

There were kids who lost all their hair, there were women with fungus on their legs–it’s a real tropical climate and damp.

And what remedy comes to your mind on seeing this?

Thuja’s a big remedy for that, Bacillinum, Sepia…. And there are tonics. Hahnemann’s life as a physician did not begin with homeopathy. Half his medical life was before homeopathy and that’s where the real treasures are. And where did he get homeopathy from? He distilled it from all the ancient knowledge. He specifically traces it back to Greek medicine, Arabic medicine…and it all goes back to ancient Egypt.

I did not know that! (Oh, wait; I did, I took your course.)

(Ha-ha!) Well, anyway… Aesclepius is the Greek god of medicine. Before Hahnemann became a homeopath, he said the highest form of medicine was achieved by the Greeks and Egyptians, 2500 years before his time, and then he explains it this way: because they had Aesclepius in balance! Aesclepius had two daughters–Panacea and Hygea–and this reflects to me the whole condition of homeopathy today. Panacea was the daughter who did nothing but find cures for people; so, she’s sitting around waiting for diseases to happen so she can cure them. But Aesclepius had another daughter named Hygea, whose only goal in life was to prevent disease! So, to have “Aesclepius In Balance” means 50% of our work should be treating disease and the other 50% should be in preventing disease! And that’s where homepathy’s the weakest–there’s very little promotion of diet, exercise, a philosophy about life, approaches to staying healthy and so on; so, homeopathy, to me, is the greatest natural system of medicine that I’ve found in 40 years of research, but, people don’t know that after Hahnemann gave up medicine, he began following a French naturalist named Mousseau. So, for twenty-some years, Hahnemann gave tonics, wrote papers on vinegar, on charcoal, on using brandy as medicine, camphor and all this stuff, plus diet and fresh air and exercise; he was using home remedies before he became a homeopath. So, after we’ve used homeopathy to bring a person back to normal, we have to encourage them to eat better, exercise, get out in the fresh air, get better sleep, to keep them healthy! We have to finish the cure. Only Hygea can finish it and prevent it.

Have you seen my article, “Why Do We Have to Talk About Diet?” It’s even truer now than ever because the staple food in our culture is (gasp!) White Flour!

And most people don’t know that white flour has a little chemical in it called alloxan, an allopathic drug. It’s a drug they give to lab mice to cause diabetes!

Yes, I read that it destroys the beta cells in the pancreas! And you’re saying they’re bleaching white flour with it? Yet one more reason to stay away from it!

So now I use potentized alloxan as a cure for diabetes!

Makes sense…

Antidoting Drug Layers

So, pesticides and other poisons–homeopaths have to address these issues. I give lectures on environmental poisons, treating chemotherapy and radiation side effects, and all this is just simple antidoting. If you include this stuff in your practice, your whole practice changes; versus just being this psychiatrist type of homeopath, now you have many more tools with which to help people. Some people just simply need an antidote! They’ve never been well since Prozac. So, you give Prozac 30C and it works! We don’t have to look for this deep essence of a person all the time, I mean, it sounds great but, I feel I want to be a homeopath that’s on the front lines. I never refuse to treat any patient–cancer patients, dying patients–everyone else has given up on these people, now the homeopaths are going to refuse to treat them too? Who are they going to turn to? Modern homeopathy is very narrow compared to what it was 100 years ago.

Acute Prescribing: Yes or No?

A very famous homeopath has made an amazing statement in his most recent book. He says he used to believe that the acute complaint was irrelevant, but now he realizes that it’s IN the acute complaint that you can most clearly discern the constitutional remedy! And when I first heard this, I thought, Wow! What a break-through! But later I began to realize: Where does this leave acute prescribing?

To me, the constitution shouldn’t even be discussed if a patient comes in with an acute! If someone has a fever or a cold or an earache, that’s what has to be treated! Every homeopath in history treated it. The idea that we should ignore it or it’s going to interfere with our remedy…but it’s not “our” remedy it’s the patient’s remedy–and if they happen to be on a constitutional remedy and an acute comes out, you treat the acute; or else, it’s pure lack of compassion!

Acute prescribing is what I teach the families and the lay people first! Here’s why–I usually only need to learn a lesson once: A 12 year old girl came to me with a chronic bladder infection. So, I gave her Staphysagria. She was doing fine for a few days and then this horrible bladder infection broke out! The parents were calling me, they were freaking out! I’m telling them it’s a good sign, I’m a good homeopath, this will pass, she’ll be better for it…. Then that night I had a dream about it and it was just like I was being ostracized! “How can you let someone….” I mean, it was like the child was on fire, and I, with my philosophy, was dismissing it–dismissing her suffering because of my beliefs, that this is “good for you”. Well, that sounds a lot like allopathy and side-effects, doesn’t it? So, I lasted one day and then another day and I woke up and said, I can’t take it anymore! She’s still suffering! It was a real bladder infection: burning, urinating every 10-15 minutes, screaming; and I go over there and I tell her to take Cantharis and in 5 minutes it all went away! So, she suffered for 3 days because of my philosophy–that aggravations are good, it’s necessary, it’s a learning experience, it’s karma, whatever people rationalize this as, but it’s nothing but lack of compassion!

Or people will say, “I’m too busy to treat acutes.” Well, it’s untreated emergencies and acutes that create the chronics! They’re the first line of defense. So, I think homeopathy needs to be refocused on epidemics, diseases, etc. as well as psychological problems. Homeopathy needs to be more diverse than just one and two hour sessions, long cases and repertorizing.

I always say that if a psychological issue came with the complaint, then it’s very important and the remedy has to cover it! But if the psychological issue is a constant and predates the complaint, then it has nothing to do with the complaint, and you can’t base your acute prescription on it!

Layers And Hering’s Law

Or, you have to clear the complaint out first and address the psychological issue afterwards. And Hahnemann and Hering…everybody talked about layers! As we go through life, certain remedy layers are laid on us. So the idea is that if a Calc-carb. child has a grief at age 10 and picks up a Nat-mur. layer, and then later he injures his back? He may now need Rhus tox!

So Hering’s Law dictates that we need to give Rhus tox as our first remedy (“Healing takes place in reverse order”), followed by Nat-mur, and finally the last thing you treat is the constitution. That means you’ve cleared away all the stuff that’s accumulated in your life; now you have a clear shot at your constitution! Today the word “constitution” just means “treat the whole person”.

Constitution actually means your genetic state, your healthy state, what you’re born with–it’s not a disease. Treating the constitution is kind of a misnomer!

Yes, I can see that!

True constitutional treatment is hygiene–the herbs, the diet, tonics, lifestyle, exercises…that’s true constitutional therapy because it remakes the constitution–cleans it out, builds it up, strengthens it; but treating pathologies? You’re treating stuff that’s been added on top of the constitution, and then to mix them all together and look for a remedy?

That’s what everyone thinks you’re supposed to do! When you just treat the layer, which usually is the result of some trauma (physical or psychological), you can often see a clear picture of a remedy rather than the murky picture you get when you try to repertorize every symptom from childhood on.

Etiology Over-rules Symptomatology!

Etiology! You’re always stressing the importance of that, Robin!

And that’s a big problem I have with a lot of the modern ways of teaching homeopathy! Now, if someone comes to me with a head injury, it is not a symptom! It’s a traumatic event that CAUSED the symptoms in the case. Now if I repertorize and add in “head injury” as a symptom? I’ve totally lost the case. The symptoms have to have a context. If someone comes to me who’s had a head injury and they’ve been depressed or had epilepsy ever since, that etiology over-rides or is more important than the symptomatology! We have a clear cause-and-effect: This happened, then they got epilepsy. So, repertorizing all the symptoms of the epilepsy is one thing; but, I learned early on that giving Arnica or Nat-sulph. for the traumatic event would clear those symptoms away–without even repertorizing and looking into all the details! So I found out that treating the etiology makes homeopathy so much easier!

Now let’s say you have someone with grief–never well since grief. Well, the core problem that needs to be treated is the grief! Grief is a state with various symptoms–depression, crying, not crying, worse from consolation and so on; but, this is what Hahnemann meant by “perceiving what has to be cured.” We have to perceive that this person is suffering because of a grief and now she has multiple sclerosis. So we find out which remedies are grief remedies that have multiple sclerosis. And I look in the literature and look for the top five – ten remedies that have cured this. I don’t start over and give myself a 3,000-to-1 chance of finding the right remedy! But, forget the 3,000-to-1 chance; we have a grief! So now we look at that rubric. Oh! There’s 40 remedies/50 remedies there! So, from 3,000, we’re down to 50 by perceiving what has to be cured.

Case Management

Another thing is that people don’t know how to use these remedies; especially, they don’t know the ascending scale starting at 6C, 12C, 30C, 200C…and a lot of the cases I get from other homeopaths, the first remedy they gave was the right one but they spent two or three years looking for another remedy because they didn’t know how to keep the first one going! And that was the first problem Hahnemann encountered, that people get used to our remedies.

Build up a tolerance.

So, using LM’s or starting the case with 6C’s…

…in water with succussions before each dose…

…which I’ve been teaching for all these years, solves numerous problems! First of all, the person can be on drugs or drink coffee and the remedies will still work because they’re being taken daily!

Makes sense….

Secondly, there are fewer aggravations, thirdly you can manage the case better–you can speed the remedy up or slow it down according to what’s going on with the patient; you can stop it, give an acute remedy if need be, then go back; there’s so many advantages to Hahnemann’s approach.

As opposed to one-dose-high-and-wait! And I would just add that, yes, the potency may stop working at some point if you’ve started with a 6C, despite giving it more often or raising the number of succussions; but, when that happens, you just go up to the 9C or 12C and it should work again.

So, I consider myself a clinical, Hahnemannian homeopath; and Hahnemann got it from ancient medicine but now we’re trying to be so modern, we think it’s beneath us to give an herbal tincture along with our remedies; but, Clarke, Burnett and all these people, that was their standard practice…Boericke? We can’t find one classical case in Boericke’s book! Boericke never treated a person’s constitution, he just treated their disease. And people say, “Oh, we don’t treat disease!” Well, that’s a total delusion. Then you’re in the wrong business. Because there’s psychological diseases (“Oh, we treat the whole person!”) Nowhere in the Organon does Hahnemann say, “We treat the whole person.” He says, “We treat the whole disease”! Then he said you have to perceive what caused it–diet, stress, bad lifestyle, and then we have to work on that area. Hahnemann was basically a naturopath.

So, when Hahnemann had that “Peruvian Bark moment”… already, in his mind, must have been, “Well, I know that like cures like because I read all the ancient Egyptian medical literature, so I’m pretty sure that the reason Peruvian Bark works so well for Malaria is because it’s similar and not because it’s astringent, as Cullen is claiming in his text which I am now translating!” Am I right?

I’ve not found any culture that didn’t know that about the law of similars; and, I’m not sure I would call it a “law” either; to be a law, it would have to be mathematically reproducible; but, it’s the Principle of similarities, not a law; otherwise, every matching of the symptoms would work every time! It’s a principle that like cures like, whether it’s “fight fire with fire”–or you can fight fire with water too, it’s a valid approach! Allopathy has its place. If there’s a broken bone, no remedy’s going to set the bone! So, homeopathy is a part of a bigger system of natural medicine. It’s a principle that guides us. We’re trying to find a remedy that’s similar to the patient, it’s not a numerical, technical, computational thing that whatever remedy gets the most points in repertorization is going to cure the case! In fact, how often does it happen that that’s the very remedy that’s least likely to work? We’ve all experienced that. The Repertory is just a tool to help narrow it down and then we read the materia medica and choose what seems like the best remedy; and, it’s very bad for perfectionists to get into homeopathy, because they want to find this ONE remedy (“Give me another week to study your case!”). Just try the remedy, you’ll know in a week or two if it’s right just by giving it! It’s alright to have back-up remedies! I say to the patient, “Here’s the remedy, take it for a week or two, if you don’t see any relief, call me and I’ll have another one there.” I don’t have to try to figure it all out! I went from 3,000 remedies down to 3. I’m done!

What Is Science?

Now it goes back to, What is science? Now, all this week in India, they’re trying to make homeopathy allopathic science, and it will never be that; but, science today is the modern religion. It’s the dominant religion on the planet. It controls war, economies, research, medicine, agriculture, everything; but, science is unscientific, the premise of science is unscientific. I was in Cairo and was sitting at a big dinner table with professors and doctors and they were talking about science. I said that homeopathy is based on subjective science and they said, “That’s a contradiction in terms!” So I asked them, “What are the most important things in your life?” They said their wives, children, their work, their jobs, helping others….” I said, “Oh, all subjective things!” and they said, “Yeah….” I said, “OK, so science, then, ignores all the most important things in people’s lives!” So they were kind of taken aback by that. So, homeopathy’s greatest gift is that it acknowledges, supports, nourishes, treats and heals the subjective! Now, subjective doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it’s just the opposite! We are more subjective than objective. Our physical bodies are 70% water and we’re thinking, that’s all we are, just physical body; but it’s our vitality, spirit, our soul–all this is the reality of who we are, because if that leaves, there is no physical body; but, you can cut off someone’s legs and arms and they’re still there!

About the author

Elaine Lewis

Elaine Lewis, D.Hom., C.Hom. Elaine is a passionate homeopath, helping people offline as well as online. Contact her at [email protected] Elaine is a graduate of Robin Murphy's Hahnemann Academy of North America and author of many articles on homeopathy including her monthly feature in the Hpathy ezine, "The Quiz". Visit her website at:https://elainelewis.hpathy.com/ and TheSilhouettes.org

Great job. Very useful interview article. Always thought that there is another way of practising. But never got any guidance from teachers in mumbai, because most of all my teachers practise constitutional medicine. AS robin murphy states, if you are not confident enough to cure a back sprain, how can you move further in homoeopathy? Besides constitutional prescribing takes a lotttttttt of time and still you are not confident that the remedy will work because every homoeopath has a different constitutional remedy for the same person. Thanks a lot elan and homoeopathy for everyone. My salute to Mr Robin Murphy. Hope i keep getting his guidance in life to practise homooeopathy well

It is truly an eye opener for young and old homeopaths alike as how homeopathy should be practiced as on today to make ourselves absolutely free from the various schools of thought and understanding Samuel Hahnemann as he would have thought the way to practice homeopathy on that till today and tomorrow.Thank you Dr.Robin Murphy for your masterly picturesque portrayal about homeopathy and Madam Elan for your purposeful interview.God Bless you all

Hi This is the best article i,ve ever read on homeopathy. I totally agree on treating acute problems first, rather than finding constitutional remedy.In my personal case, both my parents had multiple problems of old age, eg. CABG, diabetese, osteoporosis, etc.I was the only son to take care.My mom was on bed for a year.She had renal failure as well. In the meanwhile, my glucose levels increased & I also joined the diabetic club.A classical homeopath prescribed cupr ars but it didnt help much even after 6 months.One of my friend is also homeopath .I discussed my case. He the gave me phosphoric acid .He just opened a mind rubric,in kent,s repertory, he found rubric—-ailments, care from.There,s only one remedy i.e phos acid. I improved a lot.Sugar levels went down . The classical homeopath made me suffer for six months!!. A low profiled homeopath made a brilliant cure. usman

A really excellent article. Vintage Robin Murphy, whose hair is still not greying, unlike mine – dash it! I have loads of his Powerpoint presentations. His and Ian Watson’s material are the best. I’m forwarding this conversation to the Homeopathy Groups I belong to, and to potential students for homeopathy courses.

While I have much appreciation for Robin Murphy, the “ain’t it awful” tone of this article I find complacent and not particularly helpful. Also, the inferred criticism of other homeopaths without naming names. Where there is disagreement, why not identify the parties so we can better understand or investigate what you are referring to. Open dialogue over differences surely provides more opportunity to grow our profession in a spirit of highest personal regard.

Margaret Ann, I’m sorry the interview struck you as negative. Robin was the first to acknowledge that he was once one of the very people he was criticizing. But you must admit that this psychological homeopathy is confusing a lot of people! People don’t know how to treat acutes or emergencies or simply refuse to, saying it will interfere with the constitutional remedy, and so allow patients to suffer. There’s a lot of false teaching and some of it is very harmful as I think we’ve shown. In fact, most people are relieved to hear that they CAN do the things that make sense to them and feel appropriate. As for naming names, I started to, actually, but thought better of it for the simple reason that the person isn’t here to defend himself; plus, there’s no value in a clash of personalities when what’s at issue is an idea or philosophy.

Perfect reply Elaine. The point is the principles and their effects on those being treated w/ our methods – not personalities.

And thanks for doing the interview! I tried to line one up w/ Robin off and on for a while last year or so, once I had his MM and Rep [3rd editions] and had read through his Organon and Case-taking/analysis Books – all of a sudden Homeopathy seemed capable of living up to its potential in .

One thing we do not have is a primer in Clinical [or 6th Organon homeopathy as I think of it.] Homeopathy that is up to date.

In most other areas of standard Homeopathic practice – but a sort of primer [like Clarke’s intro to the prescriber] or more so like Dr. Elizabeth Wright’s a Brief Course in Classical Homeopathy and Phyliss Speight’s ‘ A study Course in Homeopathy’.

Robin’s Case Analysis and Commentary on the Org are great but somewhat chaotically transcribed, unedited, missing a few sections from tape turnover etc. No less valuable for all that, but not a replacement for a more systematic, streamlined primer of clinical homeopathy!

These and phatak sized MM and REP for beginners that are not 45 years now out of date.

I don’t know if Robin has a mind to condense his MM and Rep into a ‘pocket manual’ ala boericke or boger’s synpotic key, in addition to having full versions, but that would be awesome – especially since he already has it on computer – and anyone starting from scratch…

Thanks again elaine!

I have read the interview a 3rd time, and I am going to photocopy a few sections for clients. Thanks so much.

I have great regards and appreciation also for the services of Dr. Robin. This interview is very informative. My special thanks for Dr. Robin for his knowledge and experience and sharing them with all of us. God bless him.

Thank you Elaine for this useful interview with Robin Murphy. He’s a trully people’s homeopath and you and the Hpathy.com team are just great! I Hope have all of you for a long time,so I can continue to learn homeopathy with you. Bless you all and my best wishes for the new year.

Dear Dr.Elaine Your interview with Dr. Murphy is beyond praise. It has really shaken the shells of our orthodox concept of homoeopathy and has helped us open our eyes to the concrete reality rather than confining to the philosophy itself. Thanks Dr.Murphy and thanks Dr. Elaine…….

Excellent interview, through and incisive. I liked these phrases of Dr. Murphy: -Disease Management for Profit. -When money’s the motivation, that’s the death of healing; medicine should be non-profit! Wonderful, Dr. Elaine, but tell me if Dr. Murphy’s hair is black because he is a vegetarian, yours are grey! Nisar

dear dr DR ROBIN MURPHY HAS WISELY EXPLAINED HOMEOPATHY IN PRACTICAL FORM. HE HAS RIGHTLY STATED THAT IN EMERGENCY WE SHOULD NOT THINK OF CONTITUTIONAL REMEDY. AS FOR EXAMPLE THE INJURY GIVES PAIN AS WELL AS SHOCK. SO THE MENTAL STATE OF EVERY PATIENT WILL BE SAME AT THE TIME OF INJURY. SO INTERNAL INJURY ARNICA 3OR 6 IN REPEATED DOSE IS THE BEST. I WILL CALL IT THE 1ST PRESCRIPTION WHICH SHOULD BE GIVEN TO PATIENT WITHOUT ASKING MUCH QUESTIONS. IN ACUTE CASE ALWAYS I GIVE LOWER POTENCY UPTO 30 ONLY RARELY 200 AND ABOVE. ARNICA, CUP MET AND NAT SULF FOR INTERNAL INJURY A,CEP, NAT MUR FOR CORYZA, RUNNING NOSE MERC COR-BAPTISIA FOR LOOSE MOTION ANT CRUD -HEP SULF FOR SKIN ELERGY HEP SULF FOR COUGH BELL-SPIGELEA FOR HEAD PAIN NUX BELL FOR STOMACH PAIN ARS -PULS FOR INDIGESTION THERE IS A LONG LIST I WILL LIKE TO GIVE SEPRATELY IF DR MANISH APPROVES OF SUCH METHOD THANKS DR SHEKHAR

I just love Robin Murphy’s lectures. He seems to me the most down to earth, most reasonable and wise teacher, and has the most usable information for homeopaths and lay person alike. His book/lecture Case Analysis, Materia Medica, and repertory are my 3 most used books.

This is an epiphany! I told my teacher this article is the most important thing I read in almost four years study. People worry that homeopathy is attracting increased public anger and opposition. At one stroke Murphy creates a homeopathy which stands up to public scrutiny: it is honest and sincere and free from the ego and new age nonsense that blights the art. He even manages to include some real remedy with the use of low potencies! To be fair George Vithoulkas also says there is no such thing as a set constitution, but that vision somehow sits awkwardly with his adherence to Kent. Somehow Murphy make a coherent philosophy that rings true to itself.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I now feel grounded again after freaking out a bit post qualification. I am happy to say that many of the things Robin mentioned were taught on the course I attended in the UK (BSH). Some things that need pushing more are the points about the healthy constitution & how to keep it healthy i.e. lifestyle. I agree, we treat disease (& sometimes dis-ease)!

Point 5 in the ‘mistakes’ part has been a massive grumble of mine! Not until someone pointed out how materia medica was all mixed up did it start to make any sense as a student and then I realised I had to sort it out myself.

& the point about causation – I always look for it – remove the cause! You cannot cure anything if you don’t remove the causation and sometimes that means a chat about lifestyle & no remedy. E.g. people who don’t drink water – so basic, so simple and so easily missed. Dehydration is a massive cause of disease.

Hi Erica, I will just throw in here that common sense has to prevail in water- drinking too. A secretary doesn’t need as much as a football player! Eight glasses of water a day can’t possibly be appropriate for everyone. Inappropriate amounts of water can harm the kidneys just as under-consumption can.

The article is very good & written openly of his practice which will be useful for other upcoming homoeopaths. It throw lights to a various subjects like tautopathy, miasms, potency selection etc.etc. Such open minded articles will safeguard the originality of Hahnemann’s homoeopathy.

Wow is all I can say! This has to be the best written, most useful interview by Elaine and Hpathy yet! Straightforward, common sense homeopathy which anyone can understand. Keep up the great work and continue to educate as you are both amazing teachers!

I am a chiropractor and I know first hand the attitudes of many people about “natural” health care. I became a chiropractor because of a book called, “Chiropractic: a modern way to health, by Dr. Dintinfass.” If you can get well naturally why would you take drugs that are poisonous or have surgery that guarantees that you will not get better? I’m not saying don’t see a medical doctor, I’m saying try chiropractic first. I feel the same about homeopathy now that I’ve read a little about. Essence makes sense. You won’t die or be poisoned from it and it may help, naturally…

I think this interview-article that Elaine conducted with Robin Murphy is one of the best I have ever read, extremely rich in its content. Dr Robin Murphy is a real present day homeopath free from all shackles, dogmas conventions and traditions. He is very much in tune with the times and understands today’s requirements. He offers himself an example of ‘following what he preaches’. Elaine Lewis has pertinently revealed that he is 60 years old, a vegetarian, still having natural black hair and taking no drugs. All credit goes to Elaine for eliciting the maximum out of Murphy for the benefit of readers. Elaine richly deserves all gratitude and abundant appreciation for this marvelous interview.

A very Practical Right and Correct approach. A must read article/ interview for the Homeopathy Fratinity in general and Budding and Future Homeopaths in particular. Please give more articles from Robin Murphy. Thanks Elaine. Mehra

sir today i am greatfull because I read dr murphy interviw but what he say about psora there origine thats from scabs itch and unhiginic condition I am not satisfieing to that Ill thinkinking is main base behind psora like RAGA & DAWESHA .

can we please have more lectures of such a master of homoeopathy . this kind of a practical approach n clarity of understanding are the virtues of a master only. these teachings can take homoeopathy further. thanks again .

Dear Dr. Robin Murphy. My name is Sanina Vera. I am a Director of Homeopathic Centre “Classical Medicine” (the School of Classical Homeopathy and Publishing House, Moscow, Russia). I call you again to make a request to allow me to publish in Russian your book «Commentary on «Organon» оf Medicine”. We can conclude a contract with you concerning edition and payment of the fee to you. I have read many of your articles and I appreciate deeply your professional knowledge and skills and right understanding of homeopathy. I will be very grateful to you if you can give lectures on classical homeopathy in Moscow. As for me, I studied homeopathy at International Academy of Classical Homeopathy of G. Vithoulkas. Now there is a serious situation in homeopathy in Russia. Some government officials are trying to ban homeopathy as a method of treatment. They support allopathy and allopathic pharmaceutical industry. But there is another problem. It is a weak and uncoordinated homeopathic education in Russia in the last 20 years. Before this time there was not development of homeopathy in the Soviet period. With best regards, Sanina Vera (Moscow)

Woke in the middle of the night and was taken to your website. The spirit of the bird calls. Listen to her song. Listen, listen, I am your friend. Be not afraid, I come to help. Listen to your heart, listen, let go of your head. The remedy is right here, take it and trust. Fly with me, let spirit guide you on the path ahead. Smile, smile, feel it flowing around, you are reconnected now to the light of true love. Oh thank you Robin, for helping me trust. Wow, it’s truly wonderful, look up you might just see soaring above.